Senior Liberal moderates are rallying around Sussan Ley after speculation that members of the faction could withdraw support for her struggling leadership in the fallout to the decision to dump a net zero emissions target.

Factional powerbrokers Anne Ruston and Maria Kovacic issued a statement on Monday disputing reports in The Australian that moderates could swing behind the Western Australian conservative Andrew Hastie in a potential challenge against Ley.

Despite the public show of support, Liberals across the factional party believe a challenge to Ley from either Hastie or Angus Taylor is now inevitable – although a spill in parliament’s final sitting of the year next week remains unlikely.

Ley dismissed the latest rumblings on Monday, alluding to a gendered element to the ongoing doubts about her leadership.

“I’ve been underestimated a lot of my life,” the trained pilot told 2GB in one of a series of interviews on Monday to sell the Coalition’s energy plan.

“I remember when a lot of blokes told me I couldn’t fly an aeroplane and did a lot to keep me out of the front seat.”

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The internal pressure on Ley has built up over the past week as the Liberal party and the Coalition resolved to drop its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, delivering a major internal victory for conservatives against moderates who had fought to retain the climate target.

The moderates were critical to Ley’s 29 votes to 25 defeat of Taylor in the post-election leadership ballot, making the prospect of some switching sides potentially fatal to her position.

Speaking on the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday, Ley said she knew there was “speculation” about the future of her leadership, including “commentary and opinions” in the media. But she said she could “absolutely” guarantee that she would remain leader of the opposition until the next election.

“We should be here and we are here in the interests of the Australian people,” she said. “I acknowledge, when it appears we’re talking about ourselves, people do mark us down. I accept that.”

In a statement released via Ley’s office on Monday, Ruston and Kovacic said reports that suggested a majority of the faction would support Hastie over Ley were “incorrect”.

“We, along with an overwhelming majority of our moderate colleagues, continue to strongly support Sussan’s leadership,” the statement read.

“This matter was resolved in the party room six months ago and Sussan will lead us strongly to the next election.”

The reference to an “overwhelming majority” of colleagues being supportive of Ley appears to be a concession that at least some moderates have lost support for the leader.

In an interview on Sky News, Ruston expressed confidence that Ley would lead the Coalition to the next election, due in 2028.

“I think that nobody should be considering any sort of a challenge at the moment. We’ve got a really important job at the moment. We’ve got to call the government out for their failures, and we’ve got to show the Australian public that we’ve got an alternative policy agenda,” she said.

Multiple Liberal sources confirmed a group of mostly moderate Liberals canvassed the prospect of who would be preferred out of Hastie and Taylor in a potential leadership contest during a phone hook-up ahead of Sunday’s joint party-room meeting to rubber-stamp the Coalition’s new energy plan.

One source said the discussion was focused on the policy itself and the leadership question was only mentioned in passing as MPs broached a scenario in which Ley was challenged in the future.

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Party sources told Guardian Australia on Monday that conservative Liberals were not preparing for an immediate leadership challenge, meaning Ley could stay in the role until after the Christmas break.

“This is the moderates acting completely alone at the moment,” according to one right-faction MP, who said the conservatives’ focus was on selling the new energy policy and gearing up for a fight on migration numbers.

While Hastie and Taylor stood shoulder-to-shoulder during the net zero fight, their faction is still divided on which would be the preferred challenger to Ley.

A second right-faction source said internal support for Hastie had grown over the past week, with some MPs reluctant to back Taylor given he was energy minister when Scott Morrison signed the Coalition up to net zero by 2050 in 2021.

Moderate Liberals who fought the case to retain a net zero target are furious about aspects of the final policy, including a proposal to allow the capacity investment scheme to underwrite coal-fired power.

The scheme is now limited to renewables and storage.

At Sunday’s joint party-room meeting, multiple Liberals sought clarity from the shadow energy minister, Dan Tehan, about how to respond when voters asked if the Coalition planned to fund coal projects.

Sources at the meeting said Tehan was evasive, leaving some MPs despondent.

“How do we sell something that anyone can rip apart?” one Liberal said. “It is not a policy, it is a gift to the Nationals.

“The Nationals now have their seats wrapped up for them – but it destroys the Liberal party.”

Ley dismissed criticism of her performance after a new poll on Monday put the Coalition’s primary vote at a record low of 24%.

“We had a leadership ballot in the Liberal party room six months ago. I’m the leader and I’m working hard every day to deliver a serious, compelling policy agenda,” she said.